When canceling an unpaid cheque on a payment account, a technical flow takes the amount due from the initially credited payment account plus the management fees from your SC account. If the payment account to which the cheque was originally credited no longer has the amount, the unpaid cheque amount is debited from your SC account as well.
In the case that your payment account (SC) does not have a sufficient balance to cover the management fees and the debt, the debt cannot be recorded. We will contact you to ask you to add credit to your account.
The original bank documents are sent to the partner by tracked post.
Note
The unpaid bills of your customers, as well as the associated costs, are therefore all and without exception at your expense, as stipulated in your contract.
Reasons for a cheque to be rejected
In the vast majority of cases, an unpaid cheque is due to a lack of funds in the bank account.
It may also be due to other less common cases, such as:
- Opposition
- Loss
- Theft
- Fraudulent use
- Receivership
- Judicial liquidation
The non-compliance of a cheque due to crossing out, forgery, or forgetting to sign it may explain the rejection of the cheque.
Time limit within which a cheque can be unpaid
In France, once a cheque is deposited, the beneficiary’s bank usually credits the funds immediately, even before it has confirmation from the issuer’s bank. If, upon verification, the issuer’s bank discovers insufficient funds or another valid issue, it can refuse to honour the check and have it returned unpaid.
Banks typically notify the depositor of an unpaid cheque a few days after deposit, but in no case later than 60 calendar days from presentation.
Declare a bad cheque
We only process cheques issued by French banks.
👉 For more information on the receipt of bad cheques, please consult the article of the French Public Service.